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Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar (1816-1895)
}} Biography Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar (February 21, 1816 – January 31, 1895) was an influential American politician, lawyer, and justice from Massachusetts. He was appointed U.S. Attorney General in 1869 by President Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885); he became the first U.S. Attorney General to head the newly created Department of Justice in July, 1870. As Attorney General Hoar worked with President Ulysses S. Grant and Secretary of State Hamilton Fish over contentious issues as settling the Alabama Claims with England and in keeping the United States from recognizing Cuban belligerency during the Ten Years' War. Hoar assisted Grant in appointing two Supreme Court justices that helped overturn a decision outlawing paper money as legal tender. Hoar himself, nominated by President Grant, was rejected by the Senate to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, in part due to senators' dismay over Hoar's resistance to distribute federal patronage jobs without regard to the job applicant's capabilities Early Life Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar was born in Concord, Massachusetts, on February 21, 1816. Hoar came from a long line of Puritan ancestry, whose family had emigrated to America in 1640 to find religious liberty from England, initially settling in Braintree.1 His father was Samuel Hoar and his mother was Sarah Sherman.2 Hoar was sent to a religious private female teacher at the early age of two where in a matter of weeks acquired learning as if he had gone to a public instructor. By the age of three years, Hoar was able to read the Bible fluently as an adult.3 By the age of four, Hoar was literate; having excelled his older sister in reading and writing. As Hoar grew up he was known for quick thinking and witty sayings.4 After attending a preparatory Academy, Hoar entered Harvard University at the age of fifteen in 1831.5 After graduation in 1835, Hoar moved West and served as an instructor at a school for girls in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.6 After teaching in Pittsburgh, Hoar traveled to Kentucky and heard the famous politician Henry Clay speak, afterwards he then returned safely to Concord where he began to study law at his father's office.7 Hoar returned to Harvard where he studied law for eighteen months and for six months in the law office of Emory Washburn. On September 30, 1839, Hoar passed the bar and had received a LL.B. degree from Harvard, where upon he practiced law in 1840 in Concord and Boston.8 Marriage & Family Hoar's brother George Frisbie Hoar was influential congressman and senator for Massachusetts. His father Samuel Hoar (1778-1856) was an influential lawyer and politician. Through his mother, Sarah Sherman (1783-1866), he was the grandson of American founding father Roger Sherman (1721-1793) and Rebecca Prescott (1742-1813). Hoar's first cousin Roger Sherman Baldwin was Governor of Connecticut and a U.S. senator. Another first cousin William Maxwell Evarts was U.S. Secretary of State, U.S. Attorney General immediately preceding Hoar, and a U.S. senator. Descendants of Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar * Samuel Hoar (1845-1904), son of Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, was editor of the American Law Review from 1873 to 1879. In 1887 he became general counsel for the Boston and Albany Railroad Company.22 * His son, Samuel Hoar (1887-1952), was partner in a prominent Boston law firm, called during his lifetime Goodwin, Procter and Hoar. The firm was founded in 1914, and Hoar's name was added in 1917 when Hoar joined the firm.23 In the 1940s he donated a several parcels of land to the Federal Government, which became the founding kernel of the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge on the Concord and Sudbury rivers in Massachusetts. He co-founded a second and still operating Concord Academy in 1922 in Concord, Massachusetts.needed * His son, Samuel Hoar (1927-2004), of Essex, Massachusetts also was a senior partner in the firm formerly known as Goodwin, Procter and Hoar.2324 As board member of the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), he was a leading member of the litigation team that compelled the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to comply with federal environmental law, and build appropriate facilities to properly treat sewage discharged into Boston harbor, a legal battle that was most intense from 1983 into the 1990s.25 * His son, Samuel Hoar (b. 1955) is a lawyer practicing in Burlington, Vermont. He served as president of the Vermont Bar Association in 2006 and 2007.26 References * - Wikipedia Category:19th-century American diplomats Category:Grant administration cabinet members Category:Alumni of Harvard Law School Category:Massachusetts lawyers Category:Massachusetts Republicans Category:Massachusetts State Senators Category:Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court justices Category:Massachusetts Whigs Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts Category:People from Concord, Massachusetts Category:Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives Category:Sherman family Category:United States Attorneys General Category:Unsuccessful nominees to the United States Supreme Court